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Regelbau 502 Ost-W 010-216 uncovered in Middelkerke

During the construction of the new casino in the Belgian coastal town of Middelkerke a Regelbau 502 has been unearthed. The bunker was part of Stützpunkt Roon and will be demolished.

The bunker was stripped after the war, and about one meter of the roof was demolished. The bunker bears the number Ost-W 010-216. The left entrance shows an St-sign on each side, meaning this bunker was Ständig, safe to hide in against heavy artillery and bombs from the air.

According to forum member Simon V. on Axis History Forum, there should be another 502 buried at the site of the new casino.

Entrance to the bunker with the bunker number Ost-W 010-216

The mayor of the town is clear, the bunkers will not pose a threat to his buildings plans. There will be a new casino and the bunkers will be demolished. Belgium has never showed much interest in the former Atlantikwall. They will always use the excuse that ‘we already have the Raversijde bunker museum’. Which is the same as demolishing a medieval castle ‘because we already have another one left’.

See a tv-coverage on the find here. https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/01/05/bunker-gevonden-onder-casino-middelkerke/

Mayor of Middelkerke Jean-Marie Dedecker makes a bad joke about possible German bodies inside the bunker.

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Demolition of Saint-Nazaire bunker on its way

In Saint-Nazaire the bunker of the Marine Flak Abteilung 820 still resists the demolition hammer. It will be destroyed in the end, but it’s stronger than expected.

It is huge too. 1500 m2, with walls 2 meters thick. The demolition started in june 2016 and should finish before 1 September, when then school next to it opens again. But at the moment only half of the bunker is gone.

The city of Saint-Nazaire has a reputation of bunker demolition. They even had plans to get rid of another Marine Flak Abteilung headquarters, the unique Fl 250 bunker at St-Marc. Fortunately for now, this plan is on hold.

As a headquarters near the coast it commanded six light anti-aircraft batteries around the Festung Saint-Nazaire. They gave the 17 heavy anti-aircraft batteries cover against low flying fighters. Saint-Nazaire had this huge amount of anti-aircraft guns because of the presence of the U-Boot base in the city center.

More photo via http://bunkersite.com/locations/france/nazaire/cp-nazaire.php

1946 IGN aerial view of the bunker still in the open.

1946 IGN aerial view of the bunker still in the open.

The huge bunker from the air. (Photo: Alain Chazette)

The huge bunker from the air. (Photo: Alain Chazette)

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Danish TV2 Nord produces TV-series about the Atlantikwall

Twenty interviews with people from Germany, USA, UK, Australia and Denmark. Nine 30 minute episodes. Danish TV2 Nord put huge effort in their series “Bunkerne”.

I’ve never seen anything like it. There has never been so much media attention for bunkers than this series. Beautiful aerial shots and archives material are connected by expert, eye witness and veteran interviews. All nine episodes have their own subject, from building the bunkers, to Russian forced labourers and a special on the Festung Hanstholm. Some of the people we see are Museumscenter Hanstholm director Jens Andersen, bunker expert and author of several books on the subject Bent Anthonisen and Gerhard Saalfeld, a German veteran.

Unfortunately the series is mostly in Danish but the interviews with foreign people are both in English and German.

See all episodes here.

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Star Wars in the Atlantikwall

One of the casemates type 667 at Widerstandsnest 227 was converted to a Star Wars vehicle. A nice form of graffiti spraying. They made a nice video of the creating process.

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Gun bunkers demolished at Locqueltas

Sad news from Lorient, France, this week. At least two gun bunkers type M 170 of battery Locqueltas, near Larmor Plage, are being demolished. A casino will be built on the spot.

Photos via http://atlantikwall.superforum.fr/t15717-c-est-la-fin-de-locqueltas

Partly demolished M 170 casemate of Batterie Locqueltas near Larmor Plage. (Photo: Olsen)

Partly demolished M 170 casemate of Batterie Locqueltas near Larmor Plage. (Photo: Olsen)

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Batterie Longues-sur-Mer and Pointe-du-Hoc on 1944 video

PhotosNormandie shows high resolution photos of the US Signal Corps and more from 1944 on Flickr. They also have a Youtube channel with raw film material from the same period. There’re a lot of well known images and film images but to see all the raw material is amazing, plus it’s very interesting study material. You can help the project by commenting on both the photos and videos with useful information on the exact location, machinery and armament and the right units.

PhotosNormandie is a collaborative project for social indexing.
The purpose of PhotosNormandie is to make archival images of the Allied invasion of Normandy more easily discoverable by more users and to attempt to correct and supplement their existing metadata.
PhotosNormandie got an Honorable Mention in Best use of crowdsourcing for descriptioncategory of Best Archives on the Web Awards for 2010 (see also here).

We have uploaded 78000 photos since 2007 about the Battle of Normandy (D-Day June 6 to end August 1944).

All photos are available in high resolution and with IPTC/IIM fields embedded.
Photos source is Archives Normandie 1939-1945 web site (in French).
This was a project led by Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie (Regional Council of Basse-Normandie) in 2004, for the D-Day 60th anniversary.

PhotosNormandie on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/

PhotosNormandie on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd-pnf-84goYFupXpld5bVw

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Recovery of M19 parts on Guernsey

The guys of Festung Guernsey continue to work on different projects on the Channel Island of Guernsey. One of the exciting ones is the recovery of remains of the automatic mortar M19 at Stützpunkt Großfels. In the future, the M19 bunker there will be turned into a museum.

Recovery of M19 parts at Stützpunkt Großfels. (Photo: Festung Guernsey)

Recovery of M19 parts at Stützpunkt Großfels. (Photo: Festung Guernsey)

 

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Regelbau 656 discovered near Nieuwpoort

A long forgotten Regelbau 656 was discovered near the Albert I-monument in Nieuwpoort. The bunker is completely stripped but apart from that in a beautiful conditions.

Its number (Ost-W 019-252) is clearly visible and the St sign on the outside and instructional texts on the inside are still sharp. It was probably part of Wn Tilly I or II. A 656 is a quite rare Kriegsmarine Regelbau and to find one in this condition is very good news.

656 Nieuwpoort. (Photo: Jack Koorneef)

656 Nieuwpoort. (Photo: Jack Koorneef)

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Regelbau 638 opened after 60 years

The most complete army battery of the Südwall at La Tamarissière (Agde) has the only built 638 hospital bunker on this side of the front. The bunker was closed since the 1950s but has been reopened this weekend by a local group of enthusiasts.

Pipettes, syringe boxes, various tubes and even remains of unused glass x-ray negatives were found inside the bunker. The group will now clean the bunker and it will be part of a future museum.

You can find photos on the group’s Facebook page.

638 Agde in 2004. (Photo: Arthur van Beveren)

638 Agde in 2004. (Photo: Arthur van Beveren)

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Demolition in Croisic

Sad news from the demolition front again. A very rare L 406 on the Croisic peninsula will be demolished or at least altered.

In 2010 new houses already closed in but now the bunker has to disappear (completely or under a new house). The faith of the Vf bunkers around this one is unknown.

A link to this location on Bunkersite.com can be found here.

M 123 on Croisic peninsula attacked by a machine. (Photo: Patrick Fleuridas)

M 123 on Croisic peninsula attacked by a machine. (Photo: Patrick Fleuridas)

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